As I continue up the mountain road, (which is more reminiscent of a highway) I stand in awe and not only the architecture around me, but also the transportation infrastructure I’m traveling on.

The road I’m on is one of many, cresting all the way into the inner city, but cresting up the mountain past the outer court towers, through the inner city, and ending at the inner court gates. On each side of this massive mountain, several roads just like this one go up it.

Just with a gaze to my left and right, I can easily see that this road is massive. I’d even guess that it’s five times larger than the widest road on earth.

And for good reason.

Even without my scan, I can easily see the segmentation of roles, classes, and, to be frank, movement speeds in this society. The amount of space needed to accommodate all these things is much larger than the ones in my world.

That doesn’t even include the fact that some things being transported, whether creatures or goods, are massive enough to require that sort of space.

In fact, just to my left as I speed past, I can see a massive elephant like creature slowly trudging along, being led by a cultivator of a clearly higher realm than me. I actually have to tilt my neck straight up, as if looking at a skyscraper from the sheer size of it. It’s taking up not only parts of the cultivator lane but the civilian and merchant lanes. But no one seems to complain, as this sort of thing appears much more normal than I might have thought.

Each step it takes shakes the ground slightly, though the road doesn’t even have a slight crack. A credit to the alchemists of the sect, creating such strong roads.

As I pass by, even as I gained distance, I can still feel the vibrations from its movement.

But soon I reach my destination, and take an off-road from this main highway. This appears to be one of the normal entrances with a massive gate, somewhat similar to the one that I passed through on the stairs.

Which makes sense, as it’s one of the gates of introspection, which separates the outer city from the outer court. As this is a partially public highway, it has direct access from the outer city.

In front of the gate are multiple cultivators, ranging from Qi condensation realm to foundation establishment. As can be guessed, they’re guarding the gate in case of a surprise attack.

In order to be identified, I take off the many layers that were on me and reveal my face. As I did so, many of the cultivators were wary, seeming to take their job seriously.

One cultivator strode up to me, an average looking blue-haired man, with a serious face.

“What’s your business here?”

Huh.

I just realized the downside of my original plan to become an inner court member.

Because I didn’t wait until the end of the exams to go on this journey, I don’t have all the identification needed to prove that I’m a member of the sect.

This may take a little longer than I thought….

“Ah, I’m a new member of the sect and was hoping to get back to my examiner.”

He gives me a quick look over before nodding to himself. Since I’ve introduced myself as a new sect member, it’s pretty clear I don’t have my identification yet, as this would have gone much quicker. I see his eyes drift towards the creatures hiding upon my person.

He also glances a distance behind me, causing me to look as well. Standing there nonchalantly is the Panther. They’ve been drifting in and out of my scans normal range, while exploring the city. It looks like they realized I’m trying to head into the sect and have been following me.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The sect guard doesn’t seem to attach any importance to this, and just asks me a simple question.

“Have you registered those spirit beasts?”

I quickly nod and show the mark on myself and the beasts. The good thing about these marks is that with a just a quick look, a cultivator can verify the Spirit beast's contracts and the type of one made with them.

I could see his eyebrow raise slightly at the number and type that I brought before him.

After confirming that is in order, he quickly raises a hand and motions one of his men to come forward. This makes me a little nervous, even though I know it’s a normal thing to do.

Young man hurries over and is carrying a large book containing many names.

“Name and court?”

“James Delinion and outer court.”

“Got it. James Del…”

He nods his head subconsciously, but then pauses in place just as he started speaking.

He gives me a close look, before making in near whispered comment.

“Yeah, he matches the profile.”

That can’t be good.

At my name, some of the other guards start whispering to each other as well.

Without finding the name in the book, he closes it for his subordinate and waves me through.

As The Panther and I move through, I can see him motion to his subordinate again, who runs off into the distance.

It looks like I won’t have much time to waste.

I have to get to senior song before whoever he’s communicating this to can get to me.

Finally, passing through the massive gate, I enter an open area where the older outer court sect members are training.

Strangely enough, it is not the sight of everyone training that brings my attention to them, but the sound.

Synchronized, resounding, and powerful shouts rock the air.

As they draw my attention to them, I can see the air and ground vibrate, with every kick and punch they do together. Clearly, this isn’t the beginner group. My scan informs me that this isn’t even an expert group, but the outer court members that have been here for a year.

Which, compared to the time that a cultivator spends growing, is a remarkably short period.

However, this is another reason I didn’t want to join the outer court, rather than the inner court. The outer court has a lot more regulations on what you do and when.

They are expected to train at certain times of the day and, while mostly optional, there are downsides to not doing so. To be specific, fewer opportunities to grow within the sect and less access to useful cultivation materials to raise their strength with.

In contrast, the inner court also has these same training situations, but it’s much less expected, mostly because it's filled with nobles who have already gone through such routines. Not only that, but they already have access to many of these materials, through their contacts.

That’s not to say that the trainings don’t have an immense benefit, In themselves. Every kick and punch actually help build your control through repetition. Teaching valuable martial techniques, while also building Ki control.

But the courtyard itself also has a formation built in that increases cultivation speed, nourishing the body and spirit when on the field.

It increases the output when training is synchronized together in this way. With my scan, I can sense the Qi swirling abundantly through the air.

For most people, these trainings are not a punishment or a task, but an opportunity.

Adding even further to this, after they complete this session and a few others, they’ll be given minor supplements to improve their bodies and increase their cultivation rate.

With all the things that I have planned and that I need to do, it wouldn’t be workable for me to be part of all these sessions for such low gain. It would also raise the question of how I’m improving so much without doing it these same things. Overall, it’s much easier to hide within the inner court and do my own activities there.

… I seem to be getting distracted.

Realizing this, I dash across the sect ground, knowing I have quite a lot of ground to cover.

Despite my fast movement and switching to a fast movement technique, it still takes a lot of time to cross just this section of the sect. As with most things in this world, the space allocated for training is massive, being many, many kilometers long, and even farther wide.

It’s not just empty space either. It’s filled with tea if equipment, dueling areas and cultivation areas, with corresponding formations to assist.

Adding to that, the sheer number of outer court members I see is astounding.

Just in the part of this training space I’m in, I can see at least 10,000 outer court members' training. And I know there are far more in the sect.

But after a few hours of high speed, I finally reach the warehouse section and sect servants’ section.

This is where food, goods, and materials are stored and maintained. Alongside that, many servants live good, full lives here.

However, there’s not much for me here, so I keep running to reach the stairs area. Keeping pace behind me is the panther, who seems curious, but also increasingly wary.

A feeling that is slowly growing with me, as well.